'Is this thing immortal? How am I supposed to kill it?' Dante wondered, looking thoughtfully at the darkness.
Fafnir opened his fist, aiming his palm at the monster, and channeled his mana and spiritual energy.
Misfortune Spell — Jinx!
Immediately, the spell absorbed five points of Fafnir's mana and spiritual energy. But all it did was add more black to the monsters' luck.
That was a misfortune spell given to him by the world runes. It affected only one target and increased its misfortune temporarily.
Dante looked at Fafnir, who was smiling proudly, as if looking at a fool. What did that shadow expect to happen by making that thing a bit more unlucky?
As Dante was thinking about what to do now, the darkness extended another tendril and crushed another torch.
'Should I use ether?'
As fast as that thought came, Dante immediately shook his head—he had to keep it for emergencies only.
'We can't kill that thing. Fafnir, we will run.'
Instantly, Fafnir turned into a shadow and went under his master. The next moment, Dante started running.
Thud!
Dante immediately fell on his face.
'Ouch, I forgot about my new strength.'
His Vitality was 38 now—more than double what it had been before—and his new lungs were filling Dante's body with oxygen.
He had used more power than necessary. Whenever he enhanced his legs before, he'd get only around 10% boost, so he wasn't used to the new amount of power.
CRACK!
Hearing another torch shattering, Dante shook his head and stood up.
He took a few steps first, then increased his speed while swinging his sword and clenching his fist.
He was adapting to his new power, and soon enough, he started running normally, even enhancing his body a few times to get used to it.
Unknown to Dante, he was getting a 20% boost now unlike the previous 10%. Although his mana was stronger now, his body couldn't be infused with much mana, or it'd break under the pressure. The exceeded mana would cover the body instead of being infused in it.
If he wanted a bigger boost, he'd need to use his demonic energy, but that was a bit dangerous currently.
In addition to that, the mana consumption for enhancing his body increased when it became stronger. Obviously, a stronger body would need more mana to be strengthened.
A few moments later, Dante returned to the entrance of the onyx room, but there was something strange.
'No skeletons?'
The guards on the entrance were nowhere to be seen—and Dante could guess why.
More than three hours had passed since he entered this place. The barbarian obviously ended up fighting the skeletons.
But who was the winner? The skeletons who seemed to have mana and spiritual energy, or the barbarian with Fire Aspect?
As Dante entered the room, he saw the first corpse. It was a skeleton holding a sword, but its lower body was missing and its head wasn't connected to its neck.
It was lying lifeless on the stairs, suggesting that it was dead.
But there was something strange about it.
'There is a core on its head.'
A dark blue core was on its skull, like a beautiful gem.
Seeing this sight, he didn't dare to approach the skeleton. Instead, he decided to finally use his first ability.
Immediately, Dante enhanced his silver eye, and even used his demonic energy. With the demonic energy, his total boost reached 40%.
The next moment, he activated his silver ether eye ability.
Instantly, a burning pain struck his eye, but he endured it and looked at the skeleton. He couldn't see anything, and with his left eye, he couldn't see its luck either.
The skeleton was indeed dead.
Instantly, Dante deactivated his ability, feeling as if his eye would explode at any moment.
'two Seconds.'
Dante breathed heavily and wiped the blood from his eyes. That pain was overwhelming, but compared to the pain that the centipede caused, it was nothing.
Carefully, Dante went to the stairs and took the core out of the skeleton's skull, looking at it with confusion.
'If she killed it, then why didn't she take the core? Did the other sword and spear skeletons kill her?'
A part of him wished that was true. That would allow him to leave this place without troubles.
But another part wished for more. It was a greedy part that wanted more than to run.
Revenge…
'No, I only have to survive… I shall focus only on this.'
Thinking about that, Dante grabbed the skeleton's sword and started moving up. Even though he had a great sword, his shadow was unarmed, so it was better to keep an extra sword for him.
A few moments later, Dante stepped into the marble room, but his eyes opened widely after scanning it.
Six skeletons lay motionless on the ground, scarred with many kinds of burning injuries that had finished them off.
The black door was just like before, with two chains blocking it. But what shocked Dante the most was the figure in front of it.
It was the barbarian!
She sat on the ground, leaning her back against the wall. She seemed to be injured as she was covered in blood and was busy wrapping some bandages around her stomach.
The moment she heard Dante's steps, she looked at him and froze as well, her eyes filled with terror and disbelief.
'Oh no, I wasted a lot of time here fighting the skeletons. Someone has found the ruins!'
Because of his new appearance, she didn't recognize him as Fafnir.
'I can't let him take all the spoils after coming this far.' The barbarian decided as she endured her pain, stood up as if nothing was wrong, and forced a smile.
"Oh, I didn't expect to see someone else here. My name is Beatrice, and as you can see, I found this place first and have even killed the guardians."
Beatrice crushed a skeleton's arm and continued: "I know that you won't like to return with empty hands, so what about we make a deal? If you help me in breaking these chains, I'll let you take a share of what we find."
Beatrice crossed her arms and waited for an answer, her hands moving slowly to the axes around her belt. But Dante only kept staring coldly at her.
She frowned, but then she finally noticed his silver slit eye and the familiar outfit.
Her heart sank instantly: '...Don't tell me.'
She finally remembered the dragon boy she was originally chasing, and her mind prepared her for the worst.
Did the dragon boy bring someone from his family? But she remembered clearly that he said he had no family. Did he lie?
Dante gritted his teeth, looking at her with disgust and disdain and hissed in English: "Deal?"
Beatrice looked at him in confusion: "E-excuse me?"
Slowly, her hands moved closer to the axes. She would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. Although Dante looked young, she knew about the dragons' long lifespans.
She only dared to attack Fafnir because he was a naive child that revealed more than he should have.
In addition to that, the mark on his head gave her a sense of familiarity, but she couldn't put her hand on what caused this.
Dante was filled with anger and hatred, but he could still think clearly.
Without hesitation, his face turned cold and expressionless as he threw the sword away.
Seeing him throw his only weapon away—and maybe affected by Dante's new trait—Beatrice let her guard down a bit.
Dante extended his right hand and repeated: "D-daal?"
Although knew everything about this world's language, he still couldn't speak it perfectly.
Beatrice hesitated for a moment before channeling her mana—ready to attack at any moment—and taking Dante's smooth hand.
For a moment, Beatrice's control faltered when she saw Dante's bright smile. And that was all he needed.
'Second form.'
All of a sudden, Beatrice's eyes widened as she moved her body instinctively.
SLASH!